To:S. G. SHAHUMYAN

Published:First published in 1930 inLenin Miscellany XIII.

      Sent from Poronin to Baku.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,[1976],

      Moscow,Volume 35,

      pages142-143.Translated:Andrew RothsteinTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

May 19, 1914[2]

Ihave received your letter of April 17. I hope you will reply when you
have read the end of the article on self-determination of nations (I am
writing it just now) inProsveshcheniye.[1]

Regardingyour pamphlet against An,be sureto send aSelbstanzeige, or exposition, toProsveshcheniye,[3].

Ipropose the following plan to you in addition. In order to combat the
stupidity of the “cultural-national autonomists”, it is necessary for the
Russian Social-Democratic Labour group to bring in a Bill in the Duma for
the equality of nations and the defence of the rights of national
minorities.

Let’sdraft such a
Bill.[4]The general principles of equality—the division of the
country into autonomous and self-governing territorial units according to,
among other things, nationality (the local population indicates the
boundaries, the State Parliament endorses them)—the limits of powers of
autonomous regions and areas, as well as of self-governing local
units—illegality of any departure from the equality of nations in the
decisions of the autonomous regions, Zemstvos, etc.; common school
councils, democratically elected, etc., freedom and equality of
language—choice of languages by municipal institutions, etc.— defence
of minorities: the right to a proportional share ofexpenditure, to school premises (free) for pupils of “alien”
nationalities, to have “alien” teachers, “alien” departments in museums
and libraries, theatres, etc.—the right of every citizen to seek
cancellation (by the courts) of every departure from equality in respect of
any “infringement” of the rights of national minorities (five-year
censuses of the population in mixed regions, ten-year censuses in the state
as a whole), etc.

Ihave a feeling that by this means we could give a popular explanation
of the stupidity of cultural-national autonomy andkillthe
supporters of this stupidity for good.

TheBill might be drafted by the Marxists ofall, or of very
many, nations of Russia.

Writeimmediately whether you agree to help in this. In general, writemore frequently, not less than once a week. It is unforgivable to
put off replying for a long time: have this in mind, especially now!!

Allthe best,

[1]See“The Right of Nations to Self-Determination” (present edition,
Vol. 20, pp. 393–454).—Ed.

[2]Thedate “May 19” was crossed out by N. K. Krupskaya and replaced by
the date when the letter was sent, “June 4”. In the marginis written: “For ... [one word heavily deleted.—Ed.]urgent.” The letter has an addendum by N. K. Krupskaya: “Because
of the Bill the letter remained unposted for two weeks. Have you received
the previous letter sent to the same address? Why don’t you reply?  Warmest
greetings!”

[3]Referenceis to Shahumyan’s pamphletNational-Cultural
Autonomy, which he wrote in Armenian in 1913. The pamphlet was a reply
to articles by the Armenian bourgeois nationalist D. Ananun (An), “The
Problem of Nationalities and Democracy”.

[4]Theoutlines of the Bill given in this letter formed the basis of
Lenin’s “Bill on the Equality of Nations and the Safeguarding of the
Rights of National Minorities” (see present edition, Vol. 20
pp. 281–83). The Bill was to be brought into the Fourth Duma by the
Bolshevik group, but this was not achieved.